ACF 1322: Science fiction & giant monsters in Hiroshi Yamamoto's MM9

© 2007 by Hiroshi Yamamoto

NATURAL DISASTERS OF HIGH “MONSTER MAGNITUDE”

THREATEN JAPAN IN MM9 

Special Team Of Scientists Must Save Japan
In A Gripping New Novel
From The Author Of THE STORIES OF IBIS

VIZ Media’s Haikasoru imprint brings a fantastic new tale of science fiction and giant monsters to North American readers with the release of Hiroshi Yamamoto’s novel MM9, available now. The release will carry an MSRP of $14.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN. An eBook edition is also available on the Amazon Kindle, Apple’s iBooks Store, the Barnes & Noble’s Nook Books Store, and the Sony Reader™ Store for $8.99.

Haikasoru publishes some of the most compelling contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy stories for English-speaking audiences, and is the first imprint based in the U.S. dedicated to Japanese science fiction and fantasy in translation.

The Japan of MM9 is beset by natural disasters all the time: typhoons, earthquakes...and giant monster attacks. A special anti-monster unit called the Meteorological Agency Monsterological Measures Department (MMD) has been formed to deal with natural disasters of high “monster magnitude.” The work is challenging, the public is hostile, and the monsters are hungry, but the MMD crew has science, teamwork...and a legendary secret weapon on their side. Together, will try and save Japan, and the universe!

“Hiroshi Yamamoto takes on the perennial Japanese science fiction theme—the giant monsters known as kaiju,” says Nick Mamatas, Haikasoru Editor. “The B-movie monsters we know and love are basically treated like meteorological disasters along the lines of hurricanes or earthquakes by the MMD, who measures the “monster magnitude” of the various threats and uses both science and folkloric knowledge to try to save Japan from constant repeated attack. Yamamoto knows his science as well as pop culture—MM9 is both a loving parody of Japanese icons like Ultraman and Godzilla, but gives an intriguing and wild answer to the question of how such enormous creatures could exist without the laws of physics kicking it. The book was very popular in Japan, and the cinematic nature of Yamamoto’s storytelling made it easy for Japanese television to adapt into an action-adventure- science fiction TV show.”

Hiroshi Yamamoto was born in 1956 in Kyoto, Japan. He began his career as a writer and game designer with the game development company Group SNE in 1987. He gained initial popularity with titles such as February at the Edge of Time and the Ghost Hunter series. His first hardcover science fiction release, God Never Keeps Silent, became a sensation among readers and was nominated for the Japan SF Award. Other novels include Day of Judgment and The Unseen Sorrow of Winter and THE STORIES OF IBIS (which is published in North America by VIZ Media’s Haikasoru). Aside from his work as a writer, Yamamoto is also active in various literary organizations as an editor of classic science fiction anthologies and as president of To-Gakkai, a group of tongue-in-cheek "experts" on the occult.

For more information on MM9 and the Haikasoru imprint, visit the dedicated website at www.haikasoru.com.